Prince Sues 22 People For $22 Million

Rock singer Prince performs at the Orange Bowl during his Purple Rain tour in Miami, Fla., April 7, 1985.

POOR, hard-up Prince has shocked his fans after The Purple One launched some legal action against 22 people for posting copies of live performances online.

Court documents say that the accused have distributed bootleg recordings using social networks and blogs.

Of course, Prince has every right to try and protect his music, but let is look at a broader picture first: How many people live in countries where Prince hasn’t performed or, when he has toured, the tickets have sold out or been so expensive that it ensured many fans couldn’t see him?

There’s a lot of people who can’t see Prince, compared to those who have. With that, some grotty bootlegs – admittedly inferior to the real thing – allow those not fortunate enough, to experience Prince in the live arena. Right?

No matter. The action has been filed and says: “The defendants in this case engage in massive infringement and bootlegging of Prince’s material.”

“For example, in just one of the many takedown notices sent to Google with respect to Doe 2 (aka DaBang319), Prince identified 363 separate infringing links to file-sharing services, with each link often containing copies of bootlegged performances of multiple separate musical compositions.”

The documents then point the finger at a number of blog sites and Facebook profiles.

Of course, Prince has previous with all this. He notoriously doesn’t like having things on YouTube, meaning that loads of people are missing out on his music for reasons spurious at best.

It seems, instead of releasing product that fans actually want, Prince has a greater concern – which is to bury some bootleggers. Jeez. He probably thinks he’s doing it for the good of everyone else too!